Going through the list of big donors to the Democratic-supporting super PAC Priorities USA Action you see familiar names like Jeffrey Katzenberg and Bill Maher. But then there’s Kareem Ahmed — a California businessman with no record of big-time political contributions to anyone before this year. So TPM’s Eric Lach set off to track down who he was and why he had suddenly poured more than a $1 million into Democratic politics. Here’s the story.
Context is everything. The state polls that came out last night and today can only be viewed in the context of the post-debate Democratic mega-freak-out. And in that context, they don’t look too bad for Obama. Read More
Why am I not entirely surprised by this?
I just learned that when Jennifer Rubin ‘interviews’ you all she really does is call you up and yell at you
— PublicPolicyPolling (@ppppolls) October 11, 2012
A lot of reporters seem to have gotten it into their heads that you can’t accuse Mitt Romney of both being hard-right and also a flip-flopper. I get the sense that even the Obama campaign has bought into this idea — though it’s less clear to me whether they just don’t think so because reporters have said it can’t work and you shouldn’t do it. Read More
As I noted this morning, a rush of swing state polls out over the last 24 hours showed Barack Obama with a diminished but real lead in states he needs to win to be reelected. It will also be key to see what comes out of the debate tonight between Paul Ryan and Joe Biden — one in which I think the sitting Veep is significantly underestimated.
But over the last few days I’ve been thinking a lot about one of the Obama campaign’s most favored taglines: “Are you in?” I think I remember a related one — though this may have been my brain riffing on ‘are you in’ — that hit something like ‘Do You Have Barack’s Back?’ Read More
Contrary to earlier reports, Rep. Issa tells us he has no plans to convene a committee hearing into the last jobs report … yet.
TPM Reader TT responds to “Are You In?”
Like a lot of liberal Democrats I am at times completely baffled by President Obama’s passivity when it comes to defending his presidency. Notwithstanding my very real disappointment with his record on civil liberties, the lack of any serious effort to bring accountability to Wall Street, the pointless search for a “Grand Bargain” (which Republicans will abandon anyway the microsecond they get the chance), and expanding the war in Afghanistan, he really has put a hell of a lot of points up on the scoreboard against sustained and at times staggeringly vicious opposition.